Workin Chick

How blessed I am.

I love going to work. I love what I do.

There is not a day that I wake up and think, “Aww man, I gotta go back in there again!”

Everyday I wake up and I’m excited to see how busy I’m gonna be.

I work in Development which is another name for fundraising. And no, it isn’t your typical telephone outbound calling center. Well, we do have a couple of phone-a-thons during the year but the majority of our solicitations are done through elaborate parties and recruiting other donors to solicit for us.

Yes, there’s a lot of ass kissing and grand guestures and we really go the extra mile for our donors. If we think they have the potential to be 6 figure contributors we roll out the red carpet- special parking places, wine and cheese gifts and we’ll do anything to let them know that we will make good use of their money on improvements for our school.

This year is our very first capital campaign. Which means we are set to raise over 10 million dollars in one year. So far, we’re half way there and by the time we publicly announce the campaign in November we hope to be at 70% of our goal. We have a great Development Consultant that we fly in once a month to advise us and help groom us and we have a great team who are very professional and want to see our team meet its goal.

We are challenged a lot. For example, last year someone anonymously donated a million dollars with the stipulation that in order to receive the money, we have to raise ANOTHER million dollars to match it, by this summer. So in addition to our capital campaign and other endowments, we STILL have to raise a million in order to get that million from the donor.

Now when I tell you we’re busy, do you believe me?

From parties to recruiting and romancing Miami’s elite. To giving tours of our school, to well placed Marketing and Publicity we are all on top of things in order to improve our school.

I can’t explain how exciting this is and how much I enjoy being a part of a team and having the major responsibility of coordinating it all. I bring all of the departments together.

My job is to make sure that we are all communicating and my work flows through each department so that I am learning everyone’s job. I assist the Director of Development by doing whatever she wants me to do from scheduling meetings to setting up meeting rooms to assisting in tours, I also assist the Director of Marketing and Publications by proofing and writing things for her publications. I assist the Special Events Director by doing research and corresponding with outside vendors about our events. I also work with the Database Manager (Blackbaud ya’ll) as she inputs the donations into our database, I generate all of the Thank You letters that we send out to them and make sure they are written properly and mailed out timely.

I’m not done. I also assist the Annual Fund Director. Usually with her, I just help write letters and design invitation to the events. And I am the temporary alumni affairs contact person so I handle any questions or updates from alumni and I try to keep on top of who is doing what so that I can pass the info along to Publications so that she can include it in her brochures.

I’m not even mentioning all of my own responsibilities. I’m basically the office manager. Making sure that everyone has everything they need to do their jobs and anyone who wants something from our department has to go through me.

I love responsibility. I love the pressure. I love the knowledge. I love being around so many people who are way smarter than I am. I love soaking in all the knowledge I can and I don’t care if anyone knows that I am so hungry for information and I have a goal and I have a vision and I want to learn as much as I can.

I am so teachable.

I am so blessed to be where I am right now.

It took a minute to get here, but it came. I’m glad I hung in there.